We have so many people to thank for their help in this endeavor that we fear the attempt. Someone will certainly be forgotten.
The quantitative data presented in this book are partially based upon three waves of the Baylor Religion Survey fielded in 2005, 2010, and 2014. The Baylor Religion Survey project was originally supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The development of survey content was the result of a collaborative effort in the Department of Sociology at Baylor University. Finally, the Gallup Organization provided valuable feedback on the final questionnaire and ultimately collected these data.
Other data presented in this volume originate from two waves of the Chapman University Survey of American Fears (2014 and 2015). The development of the survey instruments involved the efforts of many Chapman students and, in particular, Dr. Ed Day of Chapman’s Department of Sociology and Dr. Ann Gordon of Chapman’s Department of Political Science. We also must thank the staff at Knowledge Networks, who provided valuable feedback on the survey and gathered these data.
Throughout the book we frequently use pseudonyms for those we spent time with, and these names are in quotation marks for the first mention. We do so when the person has not publicly disclosed their paranormal beliefs and/or experiences, unless they have expressly stated a willingness to be identified.
The late Datus Perry of Carson, Washington, spent many hours ushering the first author through the woods looking for Bigfoot. We greatly appreciate Laura Cyr’s willingness to tell us of her many supernatural and paranormal experiences. We are equally grateful that the UFO Contact Center International opened its doors to our questions and to Paul Ingram for telling us his harrowing experience with the Satanic panic of the 1990s. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Ernie Alonzo of Haunted Orange County in arranging a ghost hunt at Chapman University and allowing one of us to follow it. The North American Wood Ape Conservancy (NAWAC) was extremely patient dragging three sociologists through the woods on one of its field operations, and we greatly enjoyed getting to know the group’s members.
Numbers can only get you so far—we did not believe we could tell a story about American paranormal beliefs without hearing from people who have experienced the paranormal for themselves. We are greatly in debt to the many people who gave us their trust and their time.
Finally, engaging in such a project requires support at home. The authors would like to thank their spouses—Sara Bader, Kim Mencken, and Amy Edmonds—for their love, patience, and understanding as we spent the night in haunted houses, chased Bigfoot, and delved into UFO abductions and psychic phenomena.